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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Portnox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 27, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
141
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
Portnox
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (13th), Passwordless Authentication (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is 28.8%, down from 31.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Portnox is 2.4%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Bill Masci - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps across a distributed network, giving you a central way of authenticating everybody
A lot of people tell you the hardware requirements for ISE are pretty substantial. If you're running a virtual environment, you're going to be dedicating quite a bit of resources to an ISE VM. That is something that could be worked on. The upgrade process is not very simple. It's pretty time-consuming. If you follow it step by step you're probably going to have a good time, but there are still a lot of things that could be a lot more user-friendly from an administrator's perspective. [They could be] easing a lot of the issues that people have. Instead of just saying the best practice is to migrate to new nodes [what would be helpful] would be to make that upgrade process easier. The UI is a lot nicer in 3.0. It's pretty slow, but for the most part, it's easy to find what you're looking for, especially things like RADIUS live logs, TACACS live logs. From a troubleshooting perspective, it's really nice finding stuff. For setting up policies, from that perspective, it could be a little bit better looking.
Afeez Adeyemo - PeerSpot reviewer
An affordable tool to monitor routers and access points
A lot of our company's customers who use Portnox Clear feel that since it is an agentless solution, it is not well-equipped enough to cover all the devices in their environment. Sometimes, our company has to explain things to our customers and spend extra time trying to convince them that there are no problems with the solution. I don't know if Portnox can introduce agents for Clear or come up with some other values that would make selling the product easier for our company while ensuring that the customers are more open to receiving Portnox Clear in their environment. As there are no agents in Portnox Clear, the customers of the product cannot download any agents on their devices, making them unsure if the product offers proper security. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the solution. The features that are offered by the product are great. If there is progress in security concerns, then Portnox Clear might have to add new features. The features that the product provides are the standard ones that are in line with the other network assistant tools or solutions in the market.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the advantages is that you can easily find rogue endpoints. For example, if you don't want to allow any endpoints where you don't know the people plugging into what kind of devices, ISE can give you a big, clear picture, e.g., what kind of endpoints are getting connected to your network. That is one of the advantages."
"Easy to use and provides good support"
"The solution is integrated with other Cisco devices and can offer automation for an organization, making deployments more dynamic and providing real-time visibility."
"Cisco ISE is a powerful solution. It gives us the ability to control who's accessing our network, and Cisco has made it very easy."
"Typically, the installation is pretty simple."
"I found the CMDB Direct Connect in Cisco ISE 3.2 the most promising feature for my use case."
"The best features are the scalability and the license structure."
"The WiFi portal in Cisco ISE is very useful for WiFi customers."
"The simplicity of the product is commendable."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"This is a self-sufficient network monitoring and security product that saves time and employee resources."
"The minute people have issues on their network, we can see what is happening right away."
"The product is a valuable solution within zero-trust architecture, enhancing network security and visibility."
"It's a stable product."
"It's easy to manage and troubleshoot thanks to the lightweight components."
"I am impressed with the solution's voucher capability and authentication. The tool is integrated with Active Direct storage."
 

Cons

"The solution could be more secure."
"The price could be better. I would like to see more integration with third-party solutions in the next release. This is because many of my clients don't have Cisco."
"They could incorporate some AI features."
"I would rate this solution a 7.5 out of ten. To make it a ten they should have more people on tech support. They need to invest more in the product. It's a good product. They should just work on tech support. More support for the customer. It's not that easy to get somebody to understand this product. I have had some issues with tech before for the solution. One of them brought the solution down due to some of his activity. They need to hugely invest in their tech support."
"The upgrades could be better. Every time we try to do an upgrade, we have problems. It's a pain."
"The licensing scheme is complex and could use enhancement to provide more options."
"The user interface can be improved."
"There are always some things that I would request."
"It could be a little cheaper."
"It would be good to integrate Portnox CORE with CLEAR."
"From a resource perspective, the OEM can do better in terms of resource utilization."
"I believe there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of integration."
"The support team is very limited. They don't have much support during Asia Pacific hours; the team sits in during the EMI and US hours."
"As there are no agents in Portnox Clear, the customers of the product cannot download any agents on their devices, making them unsure if the product offers proper security."
"Now, the way security is viewed, maybe including something like AI, to automate some of the things that are required to be done would be great."
"It might be beneficial to improve the ease of integrating the product with firewalls."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price can be lower, especially for subscriptions. It should be a lot cheaper to have a wide range of customers. The price should be comparable to competitive products like Forescout or Fortinet FortiNAC. Forescout is cheaper for customers looking for a cloud solution."
"It's damn expensive and the licensing is terrible... If you have perpetual licenses on 2.7 and you upgrade to 3, you are forced to go with Essentials. That is one of the issues that I'm seeing with my clients now."
"For the Avast virus scan, we pay around USD $95 per machine for five years which includes all updates and technical support."
"Pricing is not a problem for Cisco because it has a lot of features and not much competition, although it's more expensive than other products. But if I do a cost-benefit analysis, Cisco provides high quality."
"According to my sales and account team, the prices we're getting are pretty good."
"The technology is good, but to use some of the other features, and capabilities, they request that we purchase the Cisco DNA Center. As a result, the bundled price is a little high."
"Standard licensing gives backup access and very few features, and then there's VM licensing - each VM we use needs to be licensed."
"There are three levels of pricing: basic, plus, and apex. Basic satisfied our needs."
"The tool is more expensive than Fortinet."
"Pricing is not cheap. It is based on licenses per port. After licensing is purchased, you only pay for support."
"The vendor price is fair."
"Pricing is quite reasonable."
"Portnox CORE's pricing is adequate and cheaper compared to other complex solutions. Its licensing costs are yearly and include support. Cost is calculated per device."
"The cost of Portnox Clear is reasonable."
"The solution is very expensive and I would rate it 10 out of 10."
"We pay for port licensing and support on a yearly basis, and it's not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
5%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Aruba Clearpass or Cisco ISE?
Aruba ClearPass is a Network Access Control tool that gives secure network access to multiple device types. You can adapt the policies to VPN access, wired, or wireless access. You can securely ...
What are the main differences between Cisco ISE and Forescout Platform?
OK, so Cisco ISE uses 802.1X to secure switchports against unauthorized access. The drawback of this is that ISE cannot secure the port if a device does not support 802.1x. Cameras, badge readers, ...
How does Cisco ISE compare with Fortinet FortiNAC?
Cisco ISE uses AI endpoint analytics to identify new devices based on their behavior. It will also notify you if someone plugs in with a device that is not allowed and will block it. The user exper...
What do you like most about Portnox CORE?
It's easy to manage and troubleshoot thanks to the lightweight components.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Portnox CORE?
It's not cheap. It's not expensive. It's in the middle, so I'll probably give it a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with Portnox CORE?
We have been having some issues with it. That's why we're considering migrating to Portnox Clear due to some limitations with CORE. At the end of the day, Portnox Clear's capabilities are much more...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
Access Layers Portnox, Portnox CLEAR
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, BC Hydro, Beachbody, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Cisco IT, Derby City Council, Global Banking Customer, Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha, Houston Methodist, Linz AG, London Hydro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Molina Healthcare, MST Systems, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Reykjavik University, Wildau University
Data Realty, Royal London, Wales Millennium Centre, McLaren Construction Group, EL AL Israeli Airlines, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Portnox and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.